Optimize Holiday Meal Kits

October 6, 2021

Time-constrained households often feel preparing meals from scratch is challenging to fit into their daily schedules. Add in the rush of the holiday season, and busy families find themselves turning to away-from-home solutions to bring nutritious meals to their tables, saving both time and trips to the supermarket. With the Delta variant still actively running its course through the U.S. population, uncertainties have resurfaced if restaurants will need to limit onsite capacity once more and even eliminate catered holiday parties again this season. However, restaurants can still realize incremental revenue by offering prepared holiday meals and meal kits consumers are demanding. In fact, 75% of both Gen Z adults and Millennials say they’d likely purchase a meal kit if it was offered by their favorite restaurants.¹

Whether offering fresh, ready-to-go holiday meals for pickup or providing easy-to-make meal kits families can cook at their convenience around the holidays, here are some best practices and tips to share with your operator customers this season:

• Make holiday menus complete and customizable, but also not too labor intensive for BOH staff. Offer only 2- to 3-different mix-and-match meals that include options for appetizers, entrées and desserts. If restaurants plan to bring in new SKUs for their meal kits, ensure they’re able to use them across their menu as an LTO or staff meal option for efficiency-sake.
• Present something special to stand out from the place next door. Consider a festive holiday cocktail or mocktail kit, a cookie kit or even include a breakfast entrée for the next day so patrons can have a carefree morning by simply popping breakfast in the oven. Or offer beer or wine pairings (if applicable) with their meal kits to increase check averages.
• Accommodate patrons with special diet requirements by providing gluten-free, vegetarian, peanut/nut free or even paleo or keto-friendly meals kits to satisfy their needs.
• Include clear instructions with every meal kit and/or reheating instructions, if applicable. Savvy restaurants could include a QR code for patrons to watch a quick demo video from the restaurant’s head chef preparing the at-home meal kit items.
• Designate pick up window times so BOH staff is not inundated trying to get food prepped and FOH waitstaff does not have to scramble packaging the kits up. Managers can also dedicate specific team members to oversee meal kit operations to free up other waitstaff.
• Don’t skimp on packaging. Quality packaging is essential to maintain food integrity. Keep certain foods separate like meat and seafood to increase food safety. If offering prepared to-go meals, ensure packaging keeps hot foods hot and cold foods cold and consider what steam and condensation does to fried foods and breads. If possible, invest in eco-friendly, compostable packaging.
• Follow local safety and sanitation regulations and be sure to communicate safe food handling and sustainable practices to customers.

Contact Omnivore for more ways foodservice operators can implement revenue-generating, solution-driven programs to grow incremental business.

1National Restaurant Association, National Household Survey, December 2020